The purpose of this blog is to provide analytical commentary on formal and informal labour organisations and their attempts to resist ever more brutal forms of exploitation in today’s neo-liberal, global capitalism.

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Portugal – When ‘good students’ turn sour

Portugal has been struggling with
austerity, imposed by the Troika of EU Commission, European Central Bank and
IMF. Higher Education (HE) has been badly affected similarly to the other areas
of the Portuguese public sector. In this guest post, Mark Bergfeld reports from his experience in Lisbon last week of
how students and members of staff mobilised against cuts in HE as part of the
November 14 general strike. He concludes that while the current crisis is
challenging, it nonetheless provides opportunities for students and members of
staff to strengthen their joint resistance against austerity.

Until recently Portugal had been
labelled the ‘good student’ of the Eurozone as the Conservative-Social
Democratic government slavishly implemented the austerity measures prescribed
by the Troika. The November 14 General Strike last Wednesday will, however, be
remembered as a game-changer for the movement against austerity. This was
particularly exemplified by the resistance that students co-ordinated for the
day.

After the massive September 15
demonstration which brought half a million people into the streets, students in
Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra launched an initiative called ‘Students for the
General Strike’ to re-ignite the movement for free education and the public
universities in Portugal.

Photo by Mark Bergfeld

The days when students demonstrated
against the Social Democratic government introducing a six Euro levy to attend
universities are long gone. Today students across Portugal pay approximately
1024 Euros. The most recent rise of 24 Euros at the beginning of this academic
year was justified by the government as additional support for students on grants. Nevertheless, students complain that this money
has never reached them.

Successive Socialist and
Social-Democratic governments have increased tuition fees since the 1990s and
introduced the market in higher education. Most lecture halls and classrooms
carry the name of private companies and banks. “With your student card you are
automatically offered a bank account”, Rodrigo explains. All student cards
carry the logo of a bank. “I don’t have a student card because I don’t want to
belong to a bank. But most people just accept it.”

With an ever shrinking budget,
universities have become dependent on the banks to subsidize the construction of
research labs, new buildings, and even classrooms. In turn the classrooms are
named after Santander and various other banks. Despite the influx of private
money universities remain underfunded. “We have been subject to 200 Million
Euros in cuts” says Leonor Figueiredo, a postgraduate literature student from
the University of Porto, and one of the students who initiated Students for a
General Strike. “In my MA seminars there are more than 50 students to one
tutor.”

Despite the deep austerity measures,
privatisation and tuition fee increases, previous national demonstrations have
only seen a couple of hundred students march for free education. Leonor, adds:
“Students are afraid of losing their grants when they miss classes. Since the
Bologna Processes the workload has increased massively.”

Despite recent demonstrations being
relatively insignificant, students refer to the movement in 1992 which had a
significant impact in bringing down the Cavaco Silva government. Clashes with
the police, big assemblies inside of the universities and massive street
mobilisations forced the government to concede back then.

However the more recent movement
against a right-wing government in 2003/2004 was defeated. Many believe that it
was the internal divisions that led to this defeat. Both Rodrigo and Leonor
were not present at the demonstration, yet spoke about a demonstration in 2004
that broke in two as student groups couldn’t decide where the demonstration
would end. The youth-wing of the Communist Party went into one direction and
the rest of the demonstration ended up going into another.

Back in 2004 as much as now student
associations and local unions were controlled by the Socialist Youth. This has
complicated national co-ordination for activists. The demonstration this
Thursday (November 22) has been called by ten student associations including
the Faculty of Letters at Porto, the Geographic Institute, and the Social
Science Institute in Lisbon.

Photo by Mark Bergfeld

Last week’s initiative ‘Students for
the General Strike’ was one of the most successful initiatives in recent years,
and will have helped to mobilise students for the national education
demonstration. Rodrigo says: “In the run-up to the strike we attended meetings
by lecturers, and organised joint meetings with our professors. We had to
strongly fight the idea that students don’t strike, and needed to convince
students not to attend classes on the day.”

On the day itself, students and
lecturers organised picket lines at the entrances of faculty and university
buildings allowing not one single person to enter. They went on to hold
assemblies, discussed alternatives to the current plans in higher education and
debated the next steps for the movement. Later on they joined the demonstration
in the city centre of Lisbon.

With job prospects of students
diminishing, lecturers’ contracts being torn up and further tuition fee
increases on the horizon, last Wednesday’s general strike will have shown
students and lecturers at their universities that the crisis contains
challenges as well as opportunities. The education demonstration this Thursday
will be seen as such an opportunity to strengthen the resistance inside of the
universities and on the streets.

Mark Bergfeld,
socialist activist, leading participant in the UK student movement in 2010, PPE
(BA) & Sociology (MA), currently writing on student struggles in Quebec and
Chile. He can be contacted at mdbergfeld@googlemail.com and @mdbergfeld